Shell holder accessory device

ABSTRACT

A shell holder accessory for a hand loading press is disclosed. The holder comprises shell rim support surfaces, primer slots and wall surfaces including an arcuate wall in a base member for embracing a shell neck in cooperation with a pivotally and retractably mounted jaw means. A spring provides for the retractable jaw movement and a pivot pin arrangement enables the pivotal jaw mounting. Flat face wall and pointed extensions are integrated into the base member for interaction of the shell neck for retractable movement of the jaw during shell admitting and expelling from the holder.

Waited States atet 1191 Cerro 1451 July 29,1975

[ SHELL HOLDER ACCESSORY DEVICE [22] Filed: Mar. 11, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 449,768

[76] Inventor:

[52] U.S. C1 86/44; 86/23; 269/254 R [51] Int. Cl. F421) 5/26; F42b 9/26 [58] Field of Search 86/23, 24, 25, 26, 27,

3,771,411 11/1973 Hazel 86/24 Primary ExaminerS amuel Feinberg Assistant Examiner-H. .1. Tudor Attorney, Agent, or FirmFrederick W. Padden [57] ABSTRACT A shell holder accessory for a hand loading press is disclosed. The holder comprises shell rim support surfaces, primer slots and wall surfaces including an arcuate wall in a base member for embracing a shell neck in cooperation with a pivotally and retraetably mounted jaw means, A spring provides for the retractable jaw movement and a pivot pin arrangement enables the pivotal jaw mounting. Flat face wall and pointed extensions are integrated into the base member for interaction of the shell neck for retractable movement of the jawdiiring shell admitting and expelling from the holder.,

10 Claims, '6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJULZSIHYS 96 699 FIG. 3 4

SHELL HOLDER ACCESSORY DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to shell holder devices and particularly to a holder accessory for a manually operated shell loading press.

Shell loading and reloading equipment and procedures are in widespread use by gun hobbyists as an economical means for loading shells and refabricating spent shells. Illustratively, numerous hand loading press equipment are available with accessory devices for holding a shell during loading and reloading processes.

Available prior art holders customarily have a single opening for admitting a single shell into a held position for loading operations and thereafter withdrawing the shell through the same opening before working on the next shell. With such a holder, it is commonplace for a person to perform a plurality of distinct loading operations on a group of shells one at a time in an effort to complete all operations in a minimal amount of time. For example, such operations include depriming spent primers of each shell in the group, next resizing the diameter of all shells in the group, and then inserting new primers into the resized shells one at a time. Although such procedures are generally utilized as a practical approach with existing loading press equipment and holder accessories, they obviously still require a substantial number of human manipulations to admit and expel the shells from the holder accessory and, therefore, are undesirably time consuming.

It is an object of this invention to improve the procedures for shell loading and reloading particularly by re ducing the time and the number of manipulations needed for admitting and expelling a shell from a holder.

Another object is to provide an improved shell holding device which overcomes the deficiencies resultant from having a single opening in the device for admitting and extracting a shell.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The foregoing objects and others are attained by an illustrative embodiment of my invention in which a holder embraces a shell neck between a fixed arcuate wall and an arcuate wall of a pivotal and retractable jaw means. Advantageously, the holder device is arranged to enable the moveable insertion of a new shell into the arcuate walls to interact with the priorly held shell and the pivotal and retracting movement of the jaw means for expelling the latter shell from a novel exit portion of the holder. The exit portion is at an opposite end of the holder to the shell admitting end. This procedure and structure reduces prior art manipulations because of the separate shell admitting and exit portions ofthe holder and, furthermore, because it is not necessary to handle a held shell just prior to an admission of a next shell into the holder for reload processing.

My holder is illustratively adapted for use as an accessory for commercially available shell loading presses. The holder utilizes a base member having a pair of shell rim supporting surfaces extending between the shell admitting and exit portions of the holder. A shell primer slot is defined in the base member between the rim supporting surfaces and is depressed in a plane below those surfaces. The base member includes an arcuate wall for embracing a shell neck in a holding position. The wall projects in a plane above a portion of one of the rim supporting surfaces.

According to a feature of my invention, the base member comprises a flat wall surface at a shell admitting end portion of the arcuate wall and for cooperative interaction with a shell neck to be admitted to the holder and the jaw means for causing jaw retraction for releasing a prior shell from a held position and enabling the admission of the shell to be held. My base member advantageously includes a pointed extension member contiguous to a shell exit end portion of the base member arcuate wall for causing a held shell neck to be moved onto that extension during its exit from a held position in order to retract the jaw means and to expel the shell from the holder as its neck moves slightly beyond the pointed extension toward the exit portion of the holder.

The jaw means of the exemplary embodiment is pivotally and retractably mounted on the base member. It includes an arcuate wall projecting in a plane above a second one of the rim supporting surfaces for embracing a shell neck in a held position above a shell primer access hole in the base member. The hole is described projecting through the surfaces of the primer slot and rim supporting surfaces of the base member. A spring illustratively secures the jaw means in a rectangular slot of the base member for the retractable movement of the jaw and for fixedly securing a shell neck in a held position between the arcuate walls. The pivotal mounting is accomplished by a pivot pin inserted in aligned bores in a bottom portion of the base member and jaw means.

DRAWING DESCRIPTION The invention, together with its various objects and features, can be easily understood from the following more detailed description of a specific illustrative embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the shell holder;

FIG. 2 depicts a front side view of the holder along section 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows another side view of the holder along section 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates a rear side view of the holder along section 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is another top view of the holder showing a springed displacement of a jaw by the neck of a partially admitted shell; and

FIG. 6 shows a shell held in a reloading position of the holder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In FIG. 1, shell holder 7 comprises a base member 8 having circular exterior wall segment 9 and an inner segment for reload holding of a shell. The inner segment includes a shell depriming and priming access hole 10 which communicates with a depressed spent primer slot 1 1 at a shell admitting end of member 8 and a less depressed primer slot 12 at a shell exit end of member 8. Elevated above and to respective sides of slots 11 and 12 are shell rim supporting surfaces 13 and 14 which are substantially flat and in the same horizontal plane. A shell rim passage 15 is depicted by dashed lines in FIG. 1 at the inner left of base member 8 and is above the plane of surface 13. Passage 15 is more clearly illustrated in the side view of FIG. 2.

The inner segment of member 8 further includes surfaces for facing and guiding the neck of a shell through to alignment above hole '10 and out from that hole after a reload processing step. At the shell admitting portion of the holder is a straight wall 16. Contiguous to wall 16 is a concave wall 17 inwardly extending in a parallel plane toward slot 11. A flat face extension wall 18 extends from wall 17 in a plane parallel to wall 16 toward a circular shaped inner wall surface 19. The latter surface terminates in a pointed extension surface 20 which is curved inwardly for aiding a removable of a shell after a reloading process step as later explained. Surface 20 is contiguous to a flat face wall 21 extending in substantially the same plane as wall 16.

FIG. 1 also shows a top view of the surfaces of a jaw 22 which is mounted retractably and pivotally on base member 8 for locating and fixing a shell in place above the depriming and priming access hole for reload processing. law 22 comprises a circular shaped shell facing wall surface 23 for engaging a shell neck and fixedly locating the shell above the access hole 10. Arcuate wall surfaces 24 and 25 extend from respective ends of surface 23 and terminate at contiguous end segments defining a circularly shaped outer wall surface 26 of jaw 22. An upper surface 27 ofjaw 22 is substantially flat except that it is slightly tapered near surfaces 23, 24, and 25. Beneath surfaces 23 is another shell rim engaging slot 27 of jaw 22 as shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 shows the side view T shape of jaw 22 with a rectangular block 22a extending below its surface 26. On an exterior surface 28 of block 22a is a cavity 280 for fixedly supporting one end of a spring 29 which retractably keeps jaw 22 in alignment for shell holding. As shown in FIG. 2, another end of spring 29 is secured in a cavity 30 in another side wall surface 31 of base member 8. A lower end of block 22a contains a bore 32 as illustrated in FIG. 3 for pivotal mounting of the jaw about a pivot pin 33 inserted through aligned bores 34 and 35 in a lower platform member 36 of base member 8. Platform 36 is joined to an upper portion of base member 8 by a cylindrical column 37.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, jaw block 22a movably mates and interfits in a complementing and slightly larger rectangular slot 38 formed in base member 8 and extending through a section of rim support surface 14 and lower shelf surfaces 39 and 40 of member 8. The latter surfaces form part of extensions 41 and 42 of member 8 and which guide the retractable movement of jaw 22 on shell reloading operations.

A lower portion of jaw block 22a is movably mounted in a complementary and slightly larger rectangular slot (not shown) in platform member 36. Block 22a contains a tapered surface 43 as shown in FIG. 4 for mechanically facilitating pivotal movement of block 22a about pivot pin 33.

Turning now to the reloading process, my illustrative holder is detachably affixed as a shell holder head accessory to a conventional shell reloading press (not shown) by engagement of that press with base member 8 and specifically about its cylindrical column 37, platform member 36 and lower support surface 44. The depriming and priming access hole 10 is aligned in registration with depriming and priming apertures (not shown) of the reloading press.

As shown in FIG. 5, a spent shell is admitted into my specific holder 7 with its rim 45 supported on surfaces 13 and 14 and within rim passage and slot 27. Shell neck 46 extends upwardly from rim 45 and is movable across surfaces 16, 17 and 18 into engagement with wall 19 and concurrently across a portion of surface 24 into engagement with jaw wall 23. Advantageously, as neck 46 moves across surface 18, its near opposite neck portion moves across walls 24 and 23 while, at the same time, rim 45 moves against walls defining passage 15 and slot 27 for retractably urging jaw 22 outwardly against the force of spring 29 and pivotally about pin 33 to admit the spent shell with its primer in aligned registration with access hole 10. As neck 46 moves out of engagement with surface 18 and within the walls 19 and 23, the force against jaw 22 and spring 29 decreases to allow the retraction of jaw 22 for retaining the spent shell within walls 19 and 23 as shown in FIG. 6 for reloading operations. Such operations include depriming of a spent primer, sizing the outer diameter of neck 46, inserting a new primer, and filling the inner chamber defined by neck 46 with an explosive powder. Each of these operations may be and are typically performed individually on all shells one at a time before proceeding with a succeeding operation needed for reloading a shell.

It is advantageous to note that slot 11 is depressed below the plane of slot 12 for allowing a spent primer to move freely into alignment above hole 10 for depriming operations even though that primer is irregularly contorted. Slot 12 is more elevated because a newly primed shell will have the primer properly located for facile movement through slot 12.

According to my invention, reduced shell manipulations occur with my illustrative holder by cooperative interaction between a first shell retained between walls 19 and 23 and a second shell (not shown) newly being admitted therebetween for reload operations. Specifically, the second shell forces the first shell from its retained position in walls 19 and 23 and passages 15 and 27. When the second shell is admitted with its rim in passage 15 and its neck moving across surfaces 16, 17, and 18, its rim engages the rim 45 of the first shell for urging the neck 46 of the first shell out of its retained position and onto the pointed extension 20. Concurrently, the neck 46 of the first shell is urged against wall 25 to move jaw 22 outwardly against spring 29 for admitting the second shell neck into a retained position within walls 19 and 23. Before that can occur, however, the neck 46 of the first shell must have its largest diameter cross-section moved slightly rearwardly beyond the pointed extension 20. Substantially concurrently, jaw 22 retracts slightly and cooperates with further shell rim-to-rim movement to cause an ejection of the first shell from the holder 7. As the neck of the second shell further moves toward the retaining position within walls 19 and 23 jaw 22 is urged again slightly outwardly and then retracts for reloading operations on the second shell while its neck is retained within walls 19 and 23.

It is to be understood that the hereinbefore described arrangements are illustrative of the application of principles of my invention. In light of this teaching, it is apparent that numerous other arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A loading device for a shell having a rim and a neck and comprising a base member having a pair of planar surfaces for supporting said shell rim,

means defining shell primer slots between said pair of surfaces and being depressed in a plane below said surfaces,

means providing a shell primer access hole and an arcuate wall projecting in a plane above a portion of a first one of said surfaces for embracing a portion of said neck for aligned registration of a shell primer and said access hole, and

jaw means pivotally and retractably mounted on said base member and having another arcuate wall projecting in a plane above a portion of a second one of said surfaces for embracing another portion of said neck and retaining said aligned registration of said shell primer and said access hole for loading operations.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said providing means includes means defining said access hole through said primer slots and said pair of surfaces.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein said jaw means comprises a block means extension below the plane of said other arcuate Wall thereof,

said base member comprises slot means matingly in terfitting with said block means,

and means including said block means and said base member for pivotally securing said jaw means retractably in said slot means.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein said base member further includes a loading press platform engaging means below the plane of said supporting surfaces and primer slots,

and said pivotally securing means includes bore means extending through said engaging means and said block means and further includes a pivot pin means extending through said bore means for pivotally securing said jaw means on said base member with said block means matingly interfitting with said slot means.

5. The invention of claim 4 further comprising spring means secured to said base member and said jaw means for retractably urging said block means of said jaw means pivotally on said pin means into a mating and interfitting with said slot means of said base member for an embracing ofa shell neck between said arcuate walls of said base member and said jaw means.

6. The invention of claim 1 wherein said base member further comprises a flat face wall extension contiguous to one end of said arcuate wall of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one of said surfaces for cooperating with said shell neck to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means for admitting said shell neck within the embrace of said arcuate walls of said base member and jaw means.

7. The invention of claim 6 further comprising a pointed extension means at another end of said arcuate wall of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one of said surfaces and responsive to an engaging movement of said shell neck onto said pointed extension means for cooperating with said shell neck to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means for expelling said shell neck from within said embrace of said arcuate walls of said base member and jaw means.

8. The invention of claim 7 wherein said base member and said jaw means each comprise shell rim passages in a plane above said rim supporting surfaces and below said arcuate walls of said base member and said jaw means.

9. The invention of claim 8 wherein said base member further comprises extension members having said mating and interfitting slot means for said block means of said jaw means defined therebetween, said extension members having upper surfaces extending in a plane below said shell rim supporting surfaces, and one of said extension members having a side surface including a cavity means, and further comprising spring means secured in said cavity means and to said jaw means for retractably urging said jaw means to embrace said shell neck between said arcuate walls of said base member and said jaw means.

10. A hand shell loading accessory device for a manually operated loading press for a shell having a rim (45) and a neck (46) and said device comprising a base member (8) including a pair of planar surfaces (13, 14) for supporting said shell rim,

means defining shell primer slots (11, 12) between said pair of surfaces and being depressed in a plane below said surfaces,

means providing a shell primer access hole (10) said providing means including means defining a circular shell primer access hole (10) through said primer slots and said pair of surfaces (13, 14),

and an arcuate wall (19) projecting in a plane above a portion of a first one (13) of said surfaces for embracing a portion of said neck (46) for aligned registration of a shell primer and said access hole (10), and

jaw means (22) pivotally and retractably mounted on said base member (8) and having an arcuate wall (23) projecting in a plane above a portion of a second one (14) of said surfaces for embracing another portion of said neck (46) and retaining said aligned registration of said shell primer and said access hole for loading operations,

said jaw means including a block means extension (22a) below the plane of said arcuate wall (23) thereof said base member having slot means (38) matingly interfitting with said block means,

a cylindrical column (37) joined to a platform extension (36) of said base member and extending below said rim supporting surfaces and primer slots,

bore means (32, 34, 35) extending through said block means (22a) and said platform extension pivot pin means (33) extending through said bore means for pivotally securing said jaw means on said base member with said block means (22a) matingly interfitting with said slot means (38),

said base member further comprising extension members (41, 42) having said slot means (38) defined therebetween and having upper surfaces (39, 40) extending in a plane below said shell rim supporting surfaces (13, 14), one (41) of said extension members having a side surface wall (31) including a cavity means (30),

spring means (29) secured in said cavity means (30) and another cavity means (28a) in said block means (22a) for retractably urging said shell neck (46) into said slot means (38),

said base member further comprising a flat face wall extension (18) contiguous to one end of said arcuate wall (19) of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one (13) of said supporting surfaces for cooperating with an inserting movement of said shell into said device to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means (22) for admitting said shell neck with the embrace of said arcuate walls (19, 23) of said base member and jaw means,

pointed extension means at another and of said arcuate wall (19) of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one (13) of said supporting surfaces and being responsive to an shell rim passages (15, 27) in said base member and said jaw means in a plane above said rim supporting surfaces (13, 14) and below said arcuate walls (19, 23 

1. A loading device for a shell having a rim and a neck and comprising a base member having a pair of planar surfaces for supporting said shell rim, means defining shell primer slots between said pair of surfaces and being depressed in a plane below said surfaces, means providing a shell primer access hole and an arcuate wall projecting in a plane above a portion of a first one of said surfaces for embracing a portion of said neck for aligned registration of a shell primer and said access hole, and jaw means pivotally and retractably mounted on said base member and having another arcuate wall projecting in a plane above a portion of a second one of said surfaces for embracing another portion of said neck and retaining said aligned registration of said shell primer and said access hole for loading operations.
 2. The invention of claim 1 wherein said providing means includes means defining said access hole through said primer slots and said pair of surfaces.
 3. The invention of claim 1 wherein said jaw means comprises a block means extension below the plane of said other arcuate wall thereof, said base member comprises slot means matingly interfitting with said block means, and means including said block means and said base member for pivotally securing said jaw means retractably in said slot means.
 4. The invention of claim 3 wherein saId base member further includes a loading press platform engaging means below the plane of said supporting surfaces and primer slots, and said pivotally securing means includes bore means extending through said engaging means and said block means and further includes a pivot pin means extending through said bore means for pivotally securing said jaw means on said base member with said block means matingly interfitting with said slot means.
 5. The invention of claim 4 further comprising spring means secured to said base member and said jaw means for retractably urging said block means of said jaw means pivotally on said pin means into a mating and interfitting with said slot means of said base member for an embracing of a shell neck between said arcuate walls of said base member and said jaw means.
 6. The invention of claim 1 wherein said base member further comprises a flat face wall extension contiguous to one end of said arcuate wall of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one of said surfaces for cooperating with said shell neck to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means for admitting said shell neck within the embrace of said arcuate walls of said base member and jaw means.
 7. The invention of claim 6 further comprising a pointed extension means at another end of said arcuate wall of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one of said surfaces and responsive to an engaging movement of said shell neck onto said pointed extension means for cooperating with said shell neck to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means for expelling said shell neck from within said embrace of said arcuate walls of said base member and jaw means.
 8. The invention of claim 7 wherein said base member and said jaw means each comprise shell rim passages in a plane above said rim supporting surfaces and below said arcuate walls of said base member and said jaw means.
 9. The invention of claim 8 wherein said base member further comprises extension members having said mating and interfitting slot means for said block means of said jaw means defined therebetween, said extension members having upper surfaces extending in a plane below said shell rim supporting surfaces, and one of said extension members having a side surface including a cavity means, and further comprising spring means secured in said cavity means and to said jaw means for retractably urging said jaw means to embrace said shell neck between said arcuate walls of said base member and said jaw means.
 10. A hand shell loading accessory device for a manually operated loading press for a shell having a rim (45) and a neck (46) and said device comprising a base member (8) including a pair of planar surfaces (13, 14) for supporting said shell rim, means defining shell primer slots (11, 12) between said pair of surfaces and being depressed in a plane below said surfaces, means providing a shell primer access hole (10) said providing means including means defining a circular shell primer access hole (10) through said primer slots and said pair of surfaces (13, 14), and an arcuate wall (19) projecting in a plane above a portion of a first one (13) of said surfaces for embracing a portion of said neck (46) for aligned registration of a shell primer and said access hole (10), and jaw means (22) pivotally and retractably mounted on said base member (8) and having an arcuate wall (23) projecting in a plane above a portion of a second one (14) of said surfaces for embracing another portion of said neck (46) and retaining said aligned registration of said shell primer and said access hole for loading operations, said jaw means including a block means extension (22a) below the plane of said arcuate wall (23) thereof said base member having slot means (38) matingly interfitting with said block means, a cylindrical column (37) joined to a platform extension (36) of said base member and extending below said rim supporting surfaces and prImer slots, bore means (32, 34, 35) extending through said block means (22a) and said platform extension (36), pivot pin means (33) extending through said bore means for pivotally securing said jaw means on said base member with said block means (22a) matingly interfitting with said slot means (38), said base member further comprising extension members (41, 42) having said slot means (38) defined therebetween and having upper surfaces (39, 40) extending in a plane below said shell rim supporting surfaces (13, 14), one (41) of said extension members having a side surface wall (31) including a cavity means (30), spring means (29) secured in said cavity means (30) and another cavity means (28a) in said block means (22a) for retractably urging said shell neck (46) into said slot means (38), said base member further comprising a flat face wall extension (18) contiguous to one end of said arcuate wall (19) of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one (13) of said supporting surfaces for cooperating with an inserting movement of said shell into said device to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means (22) for admitting said shell neck with the embrace of said arcuate walls (19, 23) of said base member and jaw means, a pointed extension means (20) at another end of said arcuate wall (19) of said base member and projecting in a plane above said first one (13) of said supporting surfaces and being responsive to an engaging movement of said shell neck onto said pointed extension means for cooperating with said shell neck to urge a pivoting and retracting of said jaw means for expelling said shell neck from within said device as said shell neck moves beyond said pointed extension, and shell rim passages (15, 27) in said base member and said jaw means in a plane above said rim supporting surfaces (13, 14) and below said arcuate walls (19, 23). 